To be fed up of hearing 'just get on with it'?

[glitterpaperchain]

This kind of 'just get on with it' RE the heat is all over Facebook. People talking about the heat in 1976 and saying 'we just got on with it' or 'we muddled through' (as if people didn't die as a result of that heatwave)

My issue is - shouldn't we as a society be aiming higher than just getting on with things and muddling through? We should be campaigning for better infrastructure, better working practices.

I just think we have all this technology, we're supposed to be a rich country, let's fight to make things better rather than just managing. What happened to the spirit of the first union workers who demanded better conditions and rights? I want to see that spirit back.

When? Now or in 1976?

I agree with a PP, the same arguments come out when it snows and traffic grinds to a halt, or when there's flooding. People complain but it tends to be over very quickly* and then everyone forgets about it until the next time. The majority of the weather in the UK is cool and wet, for investment to tackle all of those issues properly, there is neither the will nor the money. If really hot spells are going to become the norm then maybe that will change.

*By next Monday temperatures are going to be much closer to the average.

And in the meantime we don't have that infrastructure so we have to get on with it. Both things can be true at the same time.

Here is a group of people doing something proactive I hope they win.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2ejll1gzjo

1976 was unique.

Honestly I'd rather discuss the idea of people that are content to just 'muddle through' rather than fight for change, instead of discussing the merits of taxing wealth vs cutting benefits. It's an attitude I've noticed for a while in many areas, the weather just being one.

I went into work today especially for the AC . And will continue to do so, while the weather is nice!
But I’m in North East England and it’s hot but nice during the day. It’s too hot at night though.

Yes, it was very hot in 1976
Yes, it lasted for several weeks
Yes, it was accompanied by a drought that lasted many months
Yes, it was an extraordinary event

Which is why it has stuck in the British consciousness BECAUSE it was so unusual

And yet...The peak temperature in 1976 was 35.9°C

That doesn't even make the top 10 of UK record temperatures.

The 1911 record stood for 79 years
The 1990 record stood for 13 years
The 2003 record stood for 16 years
The 2022 record may be broken this week, after 4 years

In fact, 1976 no longer makes the top 5 hottest summers.

They are all from 2000 onwards.

It didn't use to be normal to hit even 32°C
It's now happened every year since 2010
It certainly wasn't normal to hit 35°C
It happened in just 10 summers in the 20th Century
It's happened 9 times in the first 26 years of the 21st Century*

So, 1976 was unique because of the length of the heatwave and the drought.

But the intensity of the heat we are experiencing now is worse, the frequency of the heat events is worse and the global situation is worse than 1976.

*@monkemma on Bluesky has supplied all these stats. Worth a follow.

I suspect it is not that people don't care. It is more a case of cognitive overload. People are worried about their jobs, homes, bills, pensions and the general uncertainty surrounding the economy. It is not that the weather isn't important; there is simply only so much bandwidth people have. For many, it just isn't the priority issue at the moment.

The thing is. The poster is correct. The UK has turned into a bunch of entitled, lazy, whiners.

I can't remember how hot 1976 was as I was only a kid but I do remember the other problems of the seventies (ice on the inside of windows, chest infections every winter, 1 bath a week, terrible food, poverty). The point being people had to just get on with it. I mean what choice was there.

People without a doubt do have much easier lives now. So many on benefits for silly reasons and god forbid we expect them to work when it's hot.

You know what. I am not enjoying the heat. I will be glad when it's over. I don't expect the bloody government to rush to my aid though. When did adults stop expecting to sort their own lives out.

If you are too hot, buy an air conditioner. Same with schools. They get budgets - use it to buy some air conditioners. The portable ones work really well and are not that expensive.

And for the love of god, will people stop saying the UK is a rich country. We are broke. We are in decline. We spend more on debt interest than education. We have little natural resources and nothing left to sell. Our industries are gone. Even our chemical industries have declined sharply in recent years.

I'm pretty sure the outgoing government and the new bloke on the block have got more things to worry about that people being a bit hot and uncomfortable for a few days.

How on earth did our dads and grandads survive wars and trench warfare, rationing, bombing of UK. Yes the UK is a bunch of pussies now. How far we have fallen.

This is exactly what I said the other day....if the summer of 76 was such a breeze, why is everyone over the age of 55 still insistent on bringing it up.
Even my DM who is otherwise very accepting said the other day, "well, let's not forget the summer of 76, it was this hot for 6 weeks and no one died...." Yes mum, yes they did. You just didn't know about it at the time because you were only 10 and didn't have Google.

...are you serious?

How on earth did our dads and grandads survive wars and trench warfare, rationing, bombing of UK.

They didn't. Many many many of them died. Same with many other things you list like freezing temps, poverty...people died. That's what will happen in this heat, too. People will die.

It is people with your opinion that I'm interested in so I would genuinely love you to answer this. In my opinion we should all be trying to continually improve society. Always make life better if we can. Do you not agree? If we can put infrastructure and legislation in place to make life easier during a heatwave, why shouldn't we?

Well I'm guessing they are trying to calm down people like the OP who seems to think a few uncomfortable days equals a crisis.
People remember it because it was hot. They didn't expect anyone to fix it for them.

And note to OP - the trade unions used to have industries to fight for ie coal mining. All the industries are gone. Thus we don't really need most of the trade unions do we.

We’re not a rich country. We’re on course for IMF bailout.

Well yes but given my local authority is spending £30 million on home to school taxis per year, and our rubbish is being collected less and less, what changes are you proposing and who pays for them?

Yes, because no-one has a job any more or an employer.

its not just a few uncomfortable days.

During the summer of 2022, the UK experienced five distinct heatwave periods ranging from 3 to 16 days in length, which culminated in a historic national temperature record of (40.3^{\circ }\text{C}). 1, 2]
According to the UK Health Security Agency, the five heatwave episodes included:
Episode 1: 4 days (June 16 to June 19)
Episode 2: 16 days (July 10 to July 25), which included the most intense 2-day period of Level 4 extreme heat (July 18 and July 19)
Episode 3: 7 days (July 30 to August 5)
Episode 4: 10 days (August 8 to August 17)
Episode 5: 3 days (August 23 to August 25)
The UK experienced four distinct, relatively short-lived heatwaves during the summer of 2025, each lasting between 5 to 6 days. While these events were brief, they occurred throughout the season and resulted in the warmest overall UK summer on record. 1, 2, 3]
Breakdown of the 2025 heatwave events:
Heatwave 1 (Third week of June): Officially declared in mid-June, lasting about five days in central and eastern England before breaking with thunderstorms.
Heatwave 2 (Late June - Early July): This event lasted about six days for parts of Yorkshire and the Humber and five days in the East. A longer, more intense spell of this heatwave affected London and southern areas, peaking at 34.7°C between June 23 and July 2.
Heatwave 3 & 4 (July and August): Additional, intermittent heatwaves occurred during these months, pushing the overall summer average for the UK to a record-breaking 16.1°C. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Hmm. No.

Its a few uncomfortable days for the ones who dont live in flats/tower blocks

hmm, yes.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/insight/uk-debt-to-hit-3tn-as-economists-warn-of-imf-risk/gm-GM2E6A0AEF?gemSnapshotKey=GM2E6A0AEF-snapshot-7&uxmode=ruby

Sorry this seems incredibly off topic, can you clarify what you're asking me?

I lived in a tropical country when I was a kid for 5 years. In those days the temperature could get up to 45 degrees in summer and we had no air conditioning at all and were eaten alive by mosquitos.
Now in recent years that country has really adapted as their main industry is tourism and every house and hotel has solar air conditioning which produces electricty to run it and cover all the costs.
Its hugely improved their quality of life and tourist income.
If its going to be this hot every year this is something we could do easily, you can even buy the basic kits on Amazon.
I just looked it up.
Solar power isnt expensive and its not a drain on energy as its free.

I think if you want your life to be better then you should go ahead and improve it.

If I want my life to be better then I should take steps to improve it.

In case you hadn't noticed the UK is sinking. There is way more hardship coming that we currently have. Food prices will skyrocket come winter when lack of fertiliser makes it way into prices. Energy costs are increasing come 1 July. Then we are going to have a new inexperienced PM who has spoke with distain about the bond markets. Yeah good one Andy. Shame we owe so much money to them. But yeah fuck them.

I suggest you toughen up and act like an adult. Nobody likes to be uncomfortable but that's okay. We are adults. We are in charge of our own lives. We can change things.

p.s. yes they did die in the wars often at a very young age and here is you complaining about a few hot, uncomfortable days at home. Not really any comparison is there.

I think PP is a troll, no one participating in good faith would glean this from my post

OP who seems to think a few uncomfortable days equals a crisis.

whilst I agree that the UK needs badly overdue improvements to infrastructure, I don’t think that installing AC for occasional brief heat waves ought to be a priority. Better railways, improved roads/road systems, better (public) transport in general, cleaner water, cleaner air, electric cars, renewable energy sources are way more important.

As you are copy/pasting an AI generated post scraping hugely biased and unreliable content sources i.e. the Mail and the Telegraph, I suggest you don't really know what you are talking about.